Sebelius is no stranger to political battles

Oct. 29, 2013
|

This photo taken Oct. 25, 2013 shows Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius takes part on a panel to answer questions about the Affordable Care Act enrollment, in San Antonio. Misreading the health care law she is responsible for administering, Sebelius has wrongly asserted that the law required health insurance signups to start Oct. 1, whether the system was ready or not. In fact, the decision when to launch the system was hers. / Eric Gay AP

by Aamer Madhani, USA TODAY

by Aamer Madhani, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON - Kathleen Sebelius is on the hot seat as the Obama administration battles to rebound from a problem-plagued rollout of the Affordable Care Act, but friends of the embattled Health and Human Services secretary say it's a mistake to count her out.

In recent days, Sebelius has been lampooned by Saturday Night Live and is facing calls from several Republicans to step down because of the bungled roll out of the online exchange.

Sebelius is no stranger to difficult fights. During her time as governor in the deep red state of Kansas, she had high-profile battles with state GOP lawmakers over her controversial decision to prevent the expansion of a coal plant and her halting of the merger of two of the region's largest health care providers.

Despite battles with Republicans on environmental issues, education and health policy during her two terms as governor and as Kansas insurance commissioner, she left office with an approval rating that hovered near 60%.

"She has been successful because she is level-headed," said Raj Goyle, a former Democratic lawmaker in the Kansas Legislature who worked closely with Sebelius when she was governor. "She's unflappable."

But as Sebelius prepares to appear before a House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday to discuss problems with the exchange, she faces the most difficult battle of her career.

Republicans have only stepped up their criticism of her in recent days, seizing on some of her missteps.

Last week, at an event to tout the Affordable Care Act in Phoenix, she set off a fresh round of GOP criticism after she said those calling for her resignation were "people who I don't work for and who do not want this program to work in the first place."

Earlier this month, she struggled in an interview on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart to explain the problems with the balky website, which the White House says will be running at full speed by the end of November. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., this week called Sebelius "the laughingstock of America."

Sen. Pat Roberts, a Republican from her home state of Kansas who stood by her side more than four years ago at a White House ceremony when President Obama announced her nomination, was the first lawmaker to call for her resignation.

Todd Tiahrt, a former GOP congressman from Kansas, said that the call for Sebelius' ouster is merited.

"Look at a parallel situation in the private sector of a CEO being hired by a board of directors to implement something that they have heavily invested in," Tiahrt said. "If it comes to a disaster, I would venture to guess that the CEO would immediately be withdrawn and fired. "

Obama, who will head to Boston on Wednesday to discuss the problems with health care implementation while she is being grilled, has stood by Sebelius. The two have long had a warm relationship dating back to his first presidential campaign, where she was an early backer of his run for the White House. Sebelius was also under consideration to be his running mate. White House spokesman Jay Carney has said that Sebelius maintains the president's "full confidence."

It's not the first time that Obama has stood by Sebelius at a tough moment. Earlier this year, the president appeared to publicly signal support for Sebelius after she drew Republican fire for asking health industry officials to make donations to help with the effort to implement the ACA.

Soon after reports of the solicitation became public, the president invited Sebelius to join him for one of his regular weekend golf outings - an invitation he has only extended to a handful of women during his presidency.

Lawmakers outside of Washington have also come to Sebelius' defense. Gov. Steve Beshear, the Democratic governor of Kentucky, has become one of her most impassioned defenders.

"It is so typical of Washington, D.C., that when something goes wrong the first thing that the critics do is yell for somebody's firing or yell for somebody's scalp," Beshear said.

Forgotten in all the criticism, Beshear said, is that there were also problems with the rollout of Medicare in 1960s and more recently with implementation of the prescription drug benefit known as Medicare Part D. In time, kinks were worked out and the programs remain popular.

During her time in Kansas, Sebelius earned a reputation nationally of being a consensus-builder, but she had her tough battles with Republicans, said Bob Beatty, a political scientist at the Washburn University in Kansas.

"In Kansas, for a Democrat to win, you have to have charisma," Beatty said. "But her charisma was not loud in the (New Jersey Gov.) Chris Christie sense. Sebelius' charisma came from the ability to ensure voters that she was competent. Perhaps that quieter charisma doesn't play as well in the face of a national problem like this one."

In 2007, while serving as governor of Kansas, she made the unprecedented decision to deny a permit for the expansion of a coal power plant based in part on concerns about climate change, kicking off a multiyear battle with the GOP-controlled legislature.

That same year she ruffled Republicans' feathers when she plainly stated after a devastating tornado all but destroyed the small town of Greensburg, Kan., that the recovery response was slow because vital National Guard equipment was tied up by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Perhaps the moment in her political career most analogous to the battle she now faces was one that dates back to her time as Kansas' insurance commissioner.

As the state's top insurance regulator in 2002, she blocked a controversial merger between two health-insurance providers. The for-profit company, Anthem, wanted to take over Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas, the state's non-profit entity that covered roughly 45% of Kansans.

For Anthem, the private company based in Indiana, the merger would have allowed them to spread its risk over a much broader pool of patients. For Blue Cross, the takeover would mean that it wouldn't have to insure everybody, including risky people with bad health, and could be more competitive.

Goyle said conventional wisdom at the time dictated that she approve the merger. But Sebelius, he said, ultimately looked past the political noise and led a deliberative process in which she followed the facts to the ultimate conclusion that the merger would be bad for Kansans.

The episode, Goyle said, underscores why he believes she will ultimately emerge from the controversy over the problems with the online exchange.

"The Blue Cross-Anthem situation is really Exhibit A of her ability to stay focused on the facts and the end goal," Goyle said. "I do not believe for one second that she's worried about the politics or that she thinks about her own standing."